Monday, September 07, 2015

UN, 7 September 2015 – While the world's forests continue to shrink as populations increase and woodlands are converted to agriculture and other uses, over the past 25 years, the rate of net global deforestation has slowed down by more than 50 per cent, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report published today.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

More resources and coordination are needed to assess the unique wildlife of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean after an international agreement earlier this month to set out a biodiversity plan for the continent, a New Zealand Antarctic expert said Wednesday.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Colombian and Norwegian leaders on Tuesday urge world leaders to make tackling tropical deforestation a top priority in the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris late this year, the Office of the Norwegian Prime Minister said in a statement.

Monday, June 01, 2015

International conference “EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 – towards implementation” took place under the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union on 26 - 27 May in Riga. During the conference Latvian Minister for Environmental Protection and Regional Development Kaspars Gerhards stressed the essential role of biodiversity and ecosystem preservation to the economy and human long-term welfare.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Friday called on everyone to recommit to global action to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, for people and for our planet, saying that biodiversity is essential to sustainable development and eradicating poverty.

Monday, May 04, 2015

If increases in greenhouse gases stay on pace, species will go extinct at an ever-increasing rate, according to a study published last week (May 1) in Science. In the worst-case scenario, global warming will contribute to wiping out one of every six species.

Thursday, April 02, 2015

Palaeontologists around the world have been searching for centuries for
the answer to what caused the sudden diversification of species on earth
at the beginning of the Cambrian Period. The search recently came to a
close when a German-based Chinese researcher, Lin Na, found the reason
has to do with niche formation and tectonic plate movements.

Friday, December 05, 2014

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
estimates that a third of all soils are degraded, due to erosion,
compaction, soil sealing, soil organic matter and nutrient depletion,
acidification, pollution and other processes caused by unsustainable
land management practices.

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Shrimp is America’s most popular seafood, but now it seems like the bad news for shrimp lovers is coming from every direction. Last winter, higher water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine forced the cancellation of Maine’s Northern shrimp season, and now scientists are saying it could happen again. And a new report from Oceana, which did DNA testing on 143 shrimp products, found that as much as 30 percent of shrimp sold in grocery stores and markets is being misrepresented, with species substitution rampant...................ecowatch.com

Sunday, October 19, 2014

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a statement Saturday following the 12th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, highlighting that the world has lost more than half of the planet's wildlife population.

"At a time when the world has seen the loss of more than half of the planet's wildlife populations, countries are neither moving fast enough nor doing enough to prevent further decline," the statement reads.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Southern Chinese authorities' introduction of an invasive fish species
to combat a surge in dengue fever has sparked fears that the practice
will break the environmental balance.

The water bureau in
Guangzhou Municipality, China's third-largest city, has reacted to the
mosquito-borne disease by adding mosquitofish to "controllable static
waters." While the fish are named for their diet of mosquito larvae,
they are also known for harming indigenous species worldwide.

Friday, October 10, 2014

The United Nations Environment Programme and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) released a report this week at a conference in Korea, compiling studies on the impact of increased ocean acidification, caused by absorbing carbon dioxide, on the marine and coastal ecosystems.

The report updated a 2009 report, since the amount of research into ocean acidification has grown, along with concerns about the effect it is having on marine organisms and the economies dependent on them.

EL KAOS UT

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.